This week I’m in love with … Kalinda Ashton and Marlena Shaw

I wanted something tangible to focus on, a phantom I could see, not the haunting that was dissolving my sister, hollowing her out, taking her apart cell by cell. Louise slipped between the past and the future, but the present was wafer-thin for her, compressed to a sliver by the twin blocks of before and sometime.

Kalinda Ashton, The Danger Game

It’s taken me some time to get to The Danger Game. I knew from a reading I’d heard a few years ago that the prose is beautifully crafted, but I’d been putting it off because the subject is bleak. Now I’m half way through I’m wondering what I was so afraid of. Yes the subject is heavy, but it’s very real and written with great compassion. She has built a world so real you can feel it inside you. I’m savouring every word.

It was published by Melbourne small press Sleepers, who sadly are shutting up shop, and is now available from them for a mere $15. Here’s the link.

Musically I’ve been exploring Marlena Shaw, who’s voice I knew from from some samples (Blue Boy, St Germaine). WOW. So much more than smooth grooves on the dance floor, she is one powerful woman, saying it like it is. Here’s a taste.